Palestinian-Israeli security coordination is ongoing – Israeli expert

Whenever Israel takes a step or threatens in violating the agreements with the Palestinian side, the Palestinian Authority (PA) threatens to completely freeze the relationship with Tel Aviv, within the logic of “an eye for an eye”, but the reality shows that it’s just words without actions.

For example, all life matters for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip require a security coordination from the Palestinian Authority side with Israel. 

A Palestinian security source told North-Press that this coordination is continuing despite the strained relationship with Israel; this is a compulsory measure imposed by geopolitical realities on the ground since Israel controls all the aspects of the Palestinian daily life.

According to Nazer Mejali, the Israeli affairs specialist said that the Palestinian-Israeli security coordination is based on the interests of the both sides and benefits all Palestinian factions, especially Hamas and Fatah, as well as the political leaders who leave through the border crossings to the outside of the country, in addition to the travel movement of students and patients; all this is being done only through the security coordination.

Mejali expressed his surprise at the transformation of this urgent coordination into material for internal Palestinian conflicts, considering that the truce understandings between Hamas and Israel in Gaza are within the framework of security coordination.

He added: “Then, we see Hamas is bidding on the Palestinian Authority because of its security coordination with Israel”.

Mejali said that the issue of the security coordination, sometimes it takes greater than its size when we talk about it as a phenomenon or criticize it, and sometimes we give it less than its size when we neglect it.

Mejali confirmed: “It is a normal situation and the lives of the people are related to this coordination, so we have to pay attention to this; there are citizens who have needs that cannot be underestimated, and there are patients who need to travel for treatment and students in need for education, and others need an Israeli permit in order to meet their family and relatives”.

Other issues in the Palestinian territories also require a security coordination with Israel, particularly in relation with trade, economy, and the daily life matters.

Following the strain relationship between the PA and Israel, Mejali talked about a change in the level of the security coordination, pointing out that the tension did not stop, but the relationship between the two sides is not as it was in the past, which affected the terms of this coordination.  For example, Israeli intelligence was providing information to the Palestinian security forces to capture the wanted Palestinians.

However, the Palestinian security forces now are no longer moving in the same way, and the level of face-to-face meetings between the Palestinian security officials and their Israeli counterparts has been declined.

Mejali concluded: “There are changes in the content of the security coordination between the PA and Israel, but this coordination has not been interrupted even once, and no one has demanded to stop it; even those factions who raise against the Palestinian Authority under the pretext of this coordination”.